Life in China, Smothered by Smog

Haze over the Forbidden City in Beijing on Tuesday.CreditWu Hong/European Pressphoto Agency

Parts of China have for days been experiencing smog so thick that highways and businesses have been shut down, and dozens of flights have been canceled. Amid dangerously unhealthy air quality levels, people in Beijing and elsewhere in the country tried to go about their daily routines.

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Other Chinese cities were advised on Friday to do the same, with the red level being the highest in the country's four-tier color-coded system.Published OnDec. 16, 2016CreditImage by Greg Baker/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Associated Press reported 460 million people were affected by a “red alert” issued by the government last week:

By the calculations of Greenpeace East Asia, the red alert affects 460 million people, with about 200 million people living in areas where the air was polluted more than 10 times above the guideline set by the World Health Organization.

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CreditGreg Baker/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Schools canceled classes on Monday because of the red alert. But in the town of Linqi, one school decided not to cancel its exams, and at least 400 children sat outside amid the heavy smog.

A woman in a park in Beijing on Tuesday.CreditWang Zhao/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Air quality in Beijing and elsewhere in China has been deemed unsafe for years. In 2013, Edward Wong, a New York Times correspondent, detailed the health risks he, his wife and their young daughter faced by living in a “toxic country.”

I want my daughter to grow up appreciating the outdoors — sunsets and birdcalls and the smell of grass or the shape of clouds. That will be impossible if we live for many more years in Beijing. Even with my adult-size lungs, I limit my time outdoors

As bad as the air quality is in China, a report this year claimed that readings in Xi’an, the provincial capital of Shaanxi, had been falsified: Cotton stuffed into equipment at air-monitoring stations delivered cleaner readings.

This month, China faced a debate over smog and the pollution that contributes to it. The government was poised to classify unhealthy air as a “natural disaster.” Many residents and newspapers were wary of the move, saying it would let the government off the hook. The Beijing News said:

“Human activity is the root of the problem, by releasing large amounts of pollution. The root of smog is pollution. There are essential differences to natural disasters.”

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A man wearing a mask while visiting a park in Beijing on Tuesday.CreditWang Zhao/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

“As Beijing braces for five days of serious air pollution, the culprits are in clear sight — coal-burning heavy industry,” Dong Liansai, a Greenpeace campaigner, told The New York Times last week when the city issued its red alert.

The smog is poised to clear, somewhat, by the end of this week.

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